ABSTRACT: This thesis is a documentation of the history of the National Basketball Association (NBA) on national television from the early 1950s until 1998. Specifically, this thesis examines the implementation of television coverage of the NBA and how coverage changed the sport. Newspaper and magazine articles from previous decades were selected to document the league's history on television as well as rule changes and historical developments in the NBA as well. Key games in the history of network coverage of the NBA are cited, and they were selected based on their historical significance to the NBA on television. Also, an analysis of games from the 1980s and 1990s was conducted to determine how television coverage has changed since the early days of the medium. Specifically, this was done through the use of newspaper and magazine articles that offered criticism of the commentators who covered the game. The games themselves were broken down into four segments: pregame, halftime, postgame, and game coverage. The pregame show was further segmented into four areas: the opening portion of the telecast, which in broadcasting terminology is known as a tease, introduction of announcers, and team lineups/injury reports. The content of the pregame shows was also analyzed. It was determined that pregame coverage has grown more sophisticated since the 1980s, with more elaborate teases and more sophisticated analysis of injuries than before. Game coverage was also broken down into four subjects: commentary during the games, themes of the games as described by the announcers during the games, the use of replays, and the use of graphics.

Summary:

ABSTRACT (cont.): Commentary in 1990s games was found to be more detailed and insightful than coverage during the 1980s, and there were more replays and camera angles used in 1990s coverage as opposed to 1980s coverage. More sophisticated and detailed graphics were used in the 1990s, specifically the use of shot charts to monitor the players' performances and the use of shooting percentage and turnover and rebounding statistics. There was one consistent element to coverage from the '80s to the '90s, and that was the announcers' use of game themes to describe to viewers how one team had defeated another. The game themes have also become more elaborate over the years; where once announcers in the '80s highlighted two or three key themes that led a team to victory, coverage in the '90s indicated that there were several themes announcers used to present the storylines of the games. Finally, halftime and postgame shows were examined for their content and it was found that coverage in the 1990s provided more analysis and elaboration on key plays in the games than in the 1980s. Finally, this study examined how television coverage changed both the NBA, and mass media coverage of the game. It was determined that NBA officials made several rule changes over the years in an effort to appeal to television viewers. Journalists were also forced to write about other aspects of the games since viewers could see the results on television. This led to more in-depth analysis of games.

basketball and hockey in person is preferable to watching them on television."41

The Shot Clock

During the early television years, the NBA was being affected by its image

as a rough-and-tumble game. In the early '50s, fouling had increased significantly

as the stalling game took its toll on the league. In 1954, NBC executives decided

to give the NBA a national showcase for the playoffs, the Knicks against a rising

power in Boston in Madison Square Garden. The result, however, damaged the

league's image and paved the way for a major rule change. After 95 fouls "one of

the worst basketball games ever played"42 was preempted by NBC. Accounts of

the game in The New York Times stated only that, "The Knicks experienced what

was simply the worst night of the season. "43 There was no mention of the game's

impact on the national television audience or the fact that NBC had preempted its

coverage. But according to Michael LaBlanc, the league's television fortunes had

taken a giant step backward. After this episode and others like it, such as a 19-18

20

game played between Fort Wayne and Minneapolis in 1950, NBA owners knew a

change was needed or their league would cease to exist. Enter Syracuse Nationals

owner Danny Biasone. For three years Biasone had told anyone who would listen

that the league needed a shot clock to eliminate the stalling game.44 Biasone

explained his reasoning:

There was no way we could stop the stalling and fouling without a time
element. Other sports had limits--in baseball you get three outs to score, in
football you must make ten yards in four downs or you lose the ball. But in
basketball, if you had a lead and a good ball handler, you could play
around all night. The only way for the other team to stop that was to grab
him and send him to the line. Then you'd foul him back. It was dull. 45

Biasone's idea was based on a test he had run during the summer of 1954,

in which he had some professionals and a group of high school players participate

in an experimental game while he used a stopwatch. Biasone discovered that most

shots were taken within 12 seconds, so he recommended that the clock be 24

seconds because he figured that during a 48-minute game, each team would have a

minimum of 60 possessions.46

The owners experimented in the exhibition season, found Biasone's idea

made sense, and instituted the 24-second clock for the 1954-55 season. Stalling

was prevented, but there was still the matter of excessive fouling. So the Board of

Governors adopted a rule limiting the number of fouls per team per quarter, after

which each foul became a shooting foul.47 The two rules were perfect

complements.

The immediate impacts of the new rule changes were felt. Scoring jumped

through the roof as tactics and coaching became less of a factor.48 The players

were finally free to do what they did best, which was to score and show off the

21

skills that in time would make the NBA such an attractive television commodity.

During the first season with the shot clock, NBA teams averaged 93.1 points per

game, an increase of 13.6 points per game over the previous year. In 1955 the

Boston Celtics became the first team in league history to average over 100 points

per game for an entire season; three years later every team in the league would

better that mark.49

However, none of the major newspapers commented on the impact of the

rule change and only The New York Times acknowledged the rule changes at all.

The story simply said that, "Emphasizing an effort to 'speed up play', the directors

of the National Basketball Association adopted two rule changes yesterday."50 The

fact that the rule changes were ignored in the Los Angeles Times, The Chicago

Tribune, and The Washington Post indicated the lack of coverage the league

received at that time. Baseball and football still ruled the sports pages, and the fact

that there were no NBA teams in those cities at the time also contributed to the

lack of newspaper coverage afforded to the NBA. Time magazine did analyze the

implementation of the shot clock and how it affected the NBA. It was reported

that, "This new rule has made the pro game a better, faster, more exciting

sport. In other years, 'freezing' the ball in the late stages was the bane of the

game."51

Despite the success attributed to the new rules changes, new problems

emerged. Rader argued that the new rule had made it difficult for fans to get

excited until the last quarter of the game.2 Rader felt that since it was difficult for

teams to build a lead and then "sit" on it, it appeared the players were not exerting

themselves until the last quarter.53 He also wrote that if a team had a huge lead in

22

the last quarter, then that last quarter would be unexciting.54 Futhermore, Rader

stated that if the score was close in the middle of the last quarter, then what had

transpired before was insignificant.55 Again, there was little newspaper or

magazine coverage during the period to substantiate or refute Rader's claims. For

whatever reason, basketball was still not on par with football and baseball as a

major sports league. But the implementation of the shot clock proved to be

most of all. The Nats, as they were called, had fallen to the Minneapolis Lakers

and George Mikan in seven games in the 1950 NBA Finals. In 1954-55, led by

their Hall-of-Fame forward Dolph Schayes, Syracuse finally won the

championship, in seven games over the Ft. Wayne Pistons. The irony was that the

Nats had to come back from a 17-point deficit in the second quarter to win the

title. If not for the shot clock, the comeback would not have been possible, a fact

not lost on Biasone. "If it wasn't for the shot clock, it would have been the dullest

game in history,"56 he said. "Fort Wayne was up by 17. Under the old rules, they'd

have gone into a stall. Then there'd have been a flurry of fouls."57

There was little newspaper coverage of how the presence of a shot clock

had made Syracuse's victory possible. Both The Washington Post and The

Chicago Tribune simply reported the facts of the contest, without even

acknowledging the fact that without the shot clock Syracuse's comeback would not

have been possible. This was in keeping with the notion that the NBA simply was

not on the level of football and baseball in the mainstream of sports fans.

23

Television Coverage

The NBA produced only modest revenues on television, due in part to the

fact that the New York Knicks were unable to field a winning team.58 Benjamin

Rader, in his book In Its Own Image: How Television Has Transformed Sport,

argued that Ned Irish, the Knicks owner, was so abrasive and irritating to the other

owners that he was unable to get their help in building a strong franchise. That and

ill-advised trades and poor drafting helped to doom the Knicks in the mid-1950s.

Rader further argued that a strong franchise in New York would have produced

more lucrative contracts for the league as well as increasing the NBA's overall

attendance.59

Newspapers of the time did not provide any analysis of how Irish ran the

Knicks during this period. In fact, the NBA was rarely in the sports pages, and

when it was the New York Times usually provided only accounts of the games

themselves. There was no analysis of strategy or management moves or the

influence of television on the game.

In 1956, the first NBA Finals game was nationally televised, Game One of

the Philadelphia-Fort Wayne series. The NBA appeared to be on its way on

television, but former NBC broadcaster Lindsey Nelson recalled how everyone in

the league was still learning to cope with the young medium. It seemed that

commercial time-outs were a source of problems in those early days. Nelson wrote

in his autobiography, Hello Everybody, I'm Lindsey Nelson, that commissioner

Podoloff had an answer:

24

He (Podoloff) was traveling to all the televised games to be sure that
everything went well. He knew that the future of the sport lay in its
success on the tube. And when television needed a time-out, the stage
manager would tell Podoloff. He would then walk briskly around behind
the bench, tap one coach on the shoulder, and say, 'Call time out.'. That's
how time-outs were handled.60

By the 1957-58 season the NBA had emerged as a league with growth

potential. This was supported by the fact that the Fort Wayne Pistons moved to

Detroit and the Rochester Royals moved to Cincinnati. Only three years earlier,

half of the league's teams had been based in cities of less than 1,000,000 people;

now only the Syracuse Nationals were in that category.61 The NBA image was

also boosted by the influx of new stars that drove gate receipts and salaries up, and

it made the league's television prospects appealing.

An article in TV Guide, "Hooping it Up For Television," examined the

importance of television to the NBA. In it the author wrote that, "Network

coverage of pro basketball not only has spread the fame of the sport but has

increased the stature of the individual players."62 The result was that major cities

were sending Commissioner Podoloff applications to join the league. Podoloff

attributed this to television. He said that "'All this interest has suddenly come up

since the games have been on network TV."'63 The NBA was scheduling games in

non-league cities, which allowed for audience TV build-ups in promoting the

Angeles was an untapped gold mine as far as Saperstein was concerned, and he

wanted to be the one to place an NBA franchise there.

But Saperstein said he was betrayed by the owners when they switched

their allegiance to Bob Short and the floundering Minneapolis franchise. Enraged,

Saperstein "resolved to teach the NBA a lesson."21 He started the ABL in 1961,

featuring teams in eight cities (including Honolulu), with Saperstein serving as the

owner of the Chicago franchise and as the league commissioner.22

33

Durslag also wrote that the NBA hoped the ABL would disappear by next

season, because if it didn't, its chances of landing a national television deal would

be enhanced.23 In 1961-62, the ABL had appeared on regional and local television,

conflicting at times with NBA games on television.24 And since the ABL playoffs

began in mid-March, around the same time as the NBA playoffs began, there was a

chance that they would conflict again on television.25 It was not the situation NBA

owners wanted. They obviously wanted only one product available to the public

on television so that ratings would be strong and revenues would be high. This is

why the owners wished Saperstein and his rival league would just go away.

An NBA executive said he did not envision the ABL landing a network

contract anytime soon because "'it took us 5 years to sell it (the NBA)

nationally."'26 The same executive said that while the NBA had improved its

standing on television in recent years, the demand still wasn't great. He added,

"'The league is coming up very well, but sponsors still aren't knocking down the

doors to buy it."'27 This more than any other comment showed the NBA's

prospects in the early '60s. The league was making money, but there was no great

demand for the games. Durslag determined that the NBA received $15,000 for

each nationally televised game during the season, while the ABL received only

$1,000 from local and regional programming.

Saperstein remained undaunted, saying:

Of the thousands of basketball players coming out of college each year,
the NBA takes only a handful--maybe 25 or less. This leaves all sorts of
first-class material for us. We definitely have the product in our league.
All we need is promotion and exposure.28

34

However, the league never did land the network deal it sought. After the

first season, The New York Times reported that the ABL had lost $1,500,000.29

And with few of the top-name collegians ready to try it, the ABL folded in just a

year-and-a half.30 The NBA then swooped in to sign ABL stars since the league

had folded.31

NBA Changes Networks

However, as the 1961 season ended, the NBA again found itself on shaky

ground with television executives. Prior to the 1962 season, NBC had refused to

renew its contract with the NBA. Supposedly, it was a numbers game: NBA

ratings for Saturday afternoon games dipped to 4.8 (9 million viewers) as

compared to Sunday afternoon NFL ratings of 10.4 (15 million viewers).32 One

big reason for the ratings slip was that the NBA, in planning its schedule before the

season began, placed its three weakest teams--Chicago, Syracuse, and Detroit--on

television a total of 14 times. On the other hand, three of the best teams--Boston,

St. Louis, and Philadelphia--appeared a total of only seven times.33

Before the 1963-64 season began, there were major changes in the NBA.

The Warriors, who had the league's top gate attraction in Chamberlain, moved

from Philadelphia to San Francisco and the Western Conference for $850,000.34

The Chicago Packers, who had joined the league in 1961, changed their name to

the Zephyrs and then moved to Baltimore in midseason to become the Bullets.35

The Syracuse Nationals filled the void in Philadelphia and assumed the name of the

76ers. Now, for the first time, the NBA had all eight of its franchises in major

cities.36 Syracuse owner Biasone alluded to this when he said, "'The area just does

not have enough population to enable a major team to flourish.'"37 When the

35

season began, the league was back on network television thanks to the assistance

of a new commissioner.

Maurice Podoloff, the league's first and only commissioner since 1946, was

replaced by Walter Kennedy. Kennedy had been an NBA publicity man and he

retired from his post as mayor of Stamford, Connecticut, to accept the job of

commissioner. Reportedly, the first question Kennedy was asked in his first

interview for the position was, "Do you think you can get us back on national

TV?"38 Roone Arledge, the president of ABC sports at the time, was looking for

programming that could diminish the ratings of "CBS Sports Spectacular", and

give Arledge's program "Wide World of Sports" a boost with sponsors.

Arledge's idea was to place live programming in competition with CBS' taped

events.39 Hence, a relationship with the NBA was forged.

The league experimented that season, out of necessity, with becoming the

first sports league to air games during prime time on a national level in America.40

The result would be 11 weeks on 60 stations for the NBA to peddle its product, a

move that other sports leagues would no doubt be watching closely.41 ABC paid a

mere $650,000 for the rights annually, which showed how much of a struggle the

league was having on television.42 Ratings crept upward, from a 6.0 in 1965 to an

8.2 in 1968, as basketball began to gain something of a foothold on television (see

Appendix B).

NBA ratings improved as the '60s wore on. It was reported in Advertising

Age that in 1966 there was a 26 percent increase in average audience per minute of

3,964,000 homes.43 The article in Advertising Age stated that ABC touted NBA

telecasts as the most efficient sports buy for advertisers in television.44 Attendance

36

had risen steadily in the previous four years, and in the first four weeks of the 1966

season it jumped 35 percent.45

The NBA expanded in 1966-67, adding a franchise in the potent media

market of Chicago, the Bulls. It was reported in Advertising Age that the Bulls

had already reported several sellouts for their first season.46 Due to all the success

the NBA was enjoying, the league expanded again one year later. In 1967-68, the

NBA added two more expansion franchises, the Seattle Supersonics and the San

Diego Rockets.47 The Knicks moved into a new and larger Madison Square

Garden; seating 19,500, and the Lakers moved into the new 17,500-seat Forum

built by new owner Jack Kent Cooke. In addition, the league's new television

contract with ABC now was worth almost $1 million a year.48

There was also another franchise relocation in the NBA in 1968. Bob

Kerner, the owner of the St. Louis Hawks, had watched as his team struggle

financially while playing in a 9,000-seat arena.49 Kerner was quoted as saying,